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What corporate social responsibility brings to brand management? The two pathways from social responsibility to brand commitment

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  • Tarek Abid
  • Marie‐Aude Abid‐Dupont
  • Jean‐Louis Moulins

Abstract

Social responsibility has become a cornerstone of brand management, enabling brand differentiation in a high growth market. By distinguishing between symbolic and utilitarian associations of social responsibility, our study identifies two levers for consumer brand commitment. We posit that utilitarian associations enhance consumer brand commitment by strengthening consumer trust. We also argue that brands can encourage consumer commitment through their environmental and philanthropic engagements by conveying values with which consumers can identify to foster brand identification. This second commitment lever is argued to be particularly effective for consumers with strong social/environmental personal norms. We empirically test our research model on a sample of regular consumers of organic food brands, validating the two pathways from social responsibility to brand commitment. The moderating role of consumers' personal norms on the process was confirmed regarding the philanthropic dimension but not the environmental one. Contributions and implications for sustainable marketing are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Tarek Abid & Marie‐Aude Abid‐Dupont & Jean‐Louis Moulins, 2020. "What corporate social responsibility brings to brand management? The two pathways from social responsibility to brand commitment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 925-936, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:27:y:2020:i:2:p:925-936
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.1856
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    1. D. Louis & C. Lombart, 2024. "Impact of a corporate social responsibility message on consumers’ sustainable behaviours and purchase intentions," Post-Print hal-04386727, HAL.
    2. Mahesh Shaw & Abhijit Majumdar & Kannan Govindan, 2022. "Barriers of social sustainability: an improved interpretive structural model of Indian textile and clothing supply chain," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1616-1633, December.
    3. Ilaria Baghi & Paolo Antonetti, 2021. "The higher they climb, the harder they fall: The role of self‐brand connectedness in consumer responses to corporate social responsibility hypocrisy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 1216-1230, July.
    4. Fan Fan, 2023. "Brand, Quality, and CSR: Which Management Strategy Achieves High Financial Performance for Agricultural Small-Medium Enterprises?," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    5. Zamira Ataniyazova & Barry A. Friedman & Prabha Kiran, 2022. "New corporate social responsibility brand evaluation in a developing country: Uzbekistan," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-15, December.
    6. Didier Louis & Cindy Lombart, 2024. "Impact of a corporate social responsibility message on consumers' sustainable behaviours and purchase intentions," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 579-599, January.
    7. Pilar Fernández‐Ferrín & Sandra Castro‐González & Belén Bande, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility, emotions, and consumer loyalty in the food retail context: Exploring the moderating effect of regional identity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 648-666, March.

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